Whistler portrait on market after six decades

James McNeill Whistler’s first portrait commission, Portrait of Lucas Alexander Ionides, is set to sell in Bonhams’ 19th-Century British and Impressionist Art sale on September 25 at Bonhams New Bond Street, London.

It is the first time that the work has been on the market in nearly 60 years. It has an estimate of £80,000-120,000 in the upcoming sale.

After moving from Paris to London in May 1859, the American painter James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) settled in Newman Street in London’s historic artists’ quarter. It was here, between 1859-1860 over the course of six months, that he painted his first portrait commission, Portrait of Lucas Alexander Ionides. The work was commissioned by Alexander Constantine Ionides, Lucas’ father. The Ionides family, a merchant trading family of Greek origin, were patrons of the arts in London, and became life-long patrons and friends of Whistler.

Whistler was experimenting with subtle manipulations of light, shade and colour early in his artistic career. It is believed that his technique at this time evolved from his encounters in Paris with contemporary French painters, notably Gustave Courbet. Whistler worked directly on the canvas with no preparatory sittings, as accounted by the sitter in his Memories, completing the work in only a dozen sittings.

Portrait of Lucas Alexander Ionides hung in the Ionides home at Tulse Hill, followed by their home at 1 Holland Park in 1864. It remained here until it was left to Lucas’ son Cyril at the time of his death in 1924. It in was the possession successively of four generations of the Ionides family, until 1968 when it was sold by Hugo Meynell Ionides to Michael Carruthers, in whose family collection it has remained. In 1960, it was included in the important Arts Council exhibition on Whistler in London, and was subsequently shown in New York, but has not been exhibited in public since then.

Luke Ionides writes tenderly of the artist in his memoir, Memories, published in 1924. “Throughout all the years that I knew Whistler, we never had any disagreement, nor did he have any with my brothers, Constantine and Alecco. I have always thought that his quarrels were connected with matters of art, not personal matters. I always found him quite easy to get on with, and quite free from the touchiness one so often hears imputed to him.” The portrait will be sold together with the original typed manuscript for Memories by Lucas Alexander Ionides.

Charles O’Brien, Head of 19th Century British and Impressionist Art commented: “Whistler’s Portrait of Lucas Alexander Ionides offers an incredible insight into his professional and personal relationship with the Ionides family. Ionides’ steadfast gaze and subtle pink glow are an outstanding demonstration of Whistler’s early talent for portraiture and reveals the tenderness for his friend. This is the first time that this very personal portrait by Whistler of his friend Luke Ionides has ever come to the open market since it was painted in 1859.”

Other highlights of the sale include:

• William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905), Fardeau Agréable (Pleasant Burden), oil on canvas. Estimate: £800,000-200,000
• Nikolai Fechin (Russian, 1881-1955), Portrait of Mademoiselle Ductor, oil on canvas. Estimate: £300,000-500,000
• John Atkinson Grimshaw (British, 1836-1893), A Golden Idyll, oil on canvas. Estimate: £150,000-200,000
• James Tissot (French, 1836-1902), A Tryst a Riverside Café, oil on canvas. Estimate: £120,000-180,000.